Thoughts on Life, Love, Politics, Hypocrisy and Coming Out in Mid-Life

Friday, May 27, 2016

Trump’s Lies and Trump’s Authoritarianism Are the Same Thing

By all reports, today Donald Trump secured enough delegates to win the Republican Party 2016 presidential nomination. This event confirms that the debasement and decline of the GOP into moral bankruptcy is now complete. What is equally disturbing is the manner in which far too many Republicans are rallying to Trump, motivated, of course out of self-promotion rather than a shred of concern about the good of the nation. Disgustingly, Marco Rubio today joined the ranks of those prostituting themselves to Trump. Tawdry whore have more integrity and virtue than those in the Republican Party pledging allegiance to Trump. Again, the parallels to what happened in 1930's Germany are chilling. The good of the citizenry and the good of the nation means nothing compared to self-promotion. A piece in New York Magazine looks at both the lies and hypocrisy of Trump and, by extension, those seeling their souls to him. Here are highlights:

On
February 7, Donald Trump told an audience of supporters in New Hampshire that
he would represent their interests, but Jeb Bush would not, because Bush was in
the pocket of special interests. Trump singled out Woody Johnson, the heir to a
pharmaceutical fortune, owner of the New York Jets, and contributor to Bush.
Trump suggested, not unreasonably, that Johnson’s support would ensure that
Bush would never allow the federal government to negotiate for lower
prescription-drug prices.
I don't get any money from any
of these special interests, and I know the special interests — I know them
better than anybody. But I don't want their money,” he said.“So tell me, let me ask you: Do you think Jeb Bush is going
to make drug prices competitive?” heasked. The crowd shouted, “No!”

This week Trump
announced that Johnson would serve as vice-chair of the Trump Victory Fund. “He’s
a terrific guy, he’s been a friend of mine a long time,” Trump announced. It
was a head-spinning move — the very man Trump had held up as the embodiment of
corruption, and whose funds he pledged never to accept, would now take a
prominent role as a Trump fund-raiser.
Donald Trump is a wildly promiscuous liar. He also has disturbing authoritarian
tendencies. Trump’s many critics have seized upon both traits as his two major
disqualifications for the presidency, yet both of them frustratingly defy easy
quantification. All politicians lie some, and many of them lie a lot, and most
presidents also push the limits of their authority in ways that can frighten
their opponents. So what is so uniquely dangerous about Trump? Perhaps the
answer is that both of these qualities are, in a sense, the same thing. His
contempt for objective truth is the rejection of democratic accountability, an
implicit demand that his supporters place undying faith in him. Because the
only measure of truth he accepts is what he claims at any given moment, the
power his supporters vest in him is unlimited.

The normal rules
of political lying hold that when the lie has been exposed, or certainly when
it has been confessed, the jig is up. You have to stop lying about it and tell
the truth, or at least retreat to a different lie. Trump bends the rules of the
universe to his own will, at no apparent cost. His brazenness is another
utterly unique characteristic. His confidence that he can make the truth
whatever he wishes at any moment, and toggle back and forth between
incompatible realities at will, without any cost to himself, is a display of
dominance. Possibly Trump’s most important statement of the campaign was his
idle boast that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue without losing any
votes. Finally,
there is Trump’s habit of settling all disputes with his own peculiar form of
ad hominem. He dismisses all criticisms of his statements and his record with
an array of put-downs, and likewise confirms all endorsements with praise.
Anybody who disagrees with Trump is ugly, short, corrupt, a loser, a habitual
liar, a total joke, and so forth.

Truth and reason
are weapons of the powerless against the powerful. There is no external
doctrine he can be measured against, not even conservative dogma, which he
embraces or discards at will and with no recognition of having done so. Trump’s
version of truth is multiple truths, the only consistent element of which is
Trump himself is always, by definition, correct. Trump’s mind is so difficult
to grapple with because it is an authoritarian epistemology that lies outside
the democratic norms that have shaped all of our collective experiences.

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Out gay attorney in a committed relationship; formerly married and father of three wonderful children; sometime activist and political/news junkie; survived coming out in mid-life and hope to share my experiences and reflections with others.
In the career/professional realm, I am affiliated with Caplan & Associates PC where I practice in the areas of real estate, estate planning (Wills, Trusts, Advanced Medical Directives, Financial Powers of Attorney, Durable Medical Powers of Attorney); business law and commercial transactions; formation of corporations and limited liability companies and legal services to the gay, lesbian and transgender community, including birth certificate amendment.

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